The story of a friendship between two French activists in the early 1970s at the beginning of France’s gay rights movement. Marc is an attractive Parisian student who tries to organize other students to fight for gay rights; while his best friend, Julie, fights for working class issues before moving on to feminist and lesbian causes.In the midst of his activism, Marc battles with his policeman father and tries to build a relationship with Andre, a young factory worker who says he’s not gay, but can’t seem to keep out of trouble at various cruising spots around Paris. Meanwhile, Julie rebounds from her separation from her boyfriend, Stephane, by moving into a ‘women only’ residence and hooking up with one of the other residents.

“My Super 8 Season” is freely inspired by the story of the FHAR, the Homosexual Revolutionary Action Front, and dedicated to its leaders Guy Hocquenghem and Françoise d’Eaubonne.

ATKOLVIDEO.COM, october 2006« The other recent find for me is Ma Saison super 8 by Alessandro Avellis. This is an amazing film, made with very little money, that attempts to chronicle the advent of gay liberation in France, after the May 1968 students' uprising and general strike. (...) All this seems rather strange, and it is, but it's extremely touching and convincing, thanks in particular to the three very sexy male leads, who look strangely similar and are perfect for this period piece. The key moment is when Marc films André lying naked in bed. This is an explicit homage to Lionel Soukaz, radical gay underground filmmaker since the early seventies. It is a magical moment because of the editing of shots from the super 8 camera with those from the regular one. The complete innocence of what is in effect the invention of gay pornography this side of the Atlantic is deeply affecting. »

NewFest, New York LGBT film festival, mai/juin 2007« Freely inspired by historical events, My Super 8 season recounts the birth of modern French gay identity. »

New York cool, Alessandro Avellis’ My Super 8 Season 2007 NewfestReviewed by Julia Sirmons« To everything there is a season. But when you’re a student in Paris in 1968, when the spirit of change and upheaval wafts through the air like the scent of fresh-bake baguettes, and the possibility of revolution and freedom seems just beyond the horizon, a season can last an eternity or fly by before you even know what’s happened. This spirit of perpetual anticipation and the confusion that accompanies it is captured perfectly in Alessandro Avellis’ My Super 8 Season (Ma Saison Super 8), a beautiful and poignant film about coming of age in a time of massive cultural change.The twin legs of the film’s moral and emotional compass are Marc (Axel Philippon) and Julie (Célia Pilastre), moving closer and farther away from each other during various periods, but always firmly attached by the bond of their friendship. Marc, a student struggling with his thesis about undertones of homosexuality in Shakespearean tragedies, moves in with Julie when his straight-laced ex-cop father kicks him out after having to bail Marc out of his old precinct when he’s arrested for an act of public (man-on-man) lewdness on the banks of the Seine.Meanwhile, Julie’s got problems of her own. Her boyfriend’s parents think she’s distracting him from his studies, so they’re shipping him off to study abroad in England. On top of this distress, she’s having a bit of an existential crisis, as her ardent youthful passion for her guy doesn’t seem to jive with her immersion in Marxism and radical feminism. “I guess my sex doesn’t agree with my politics,” she sighs in a moment of post-coital bliss and mental confusion. Never have the seriocomic melodramas of student life and love been more aptly summed up.Marc’s romantic life takes an interesting turn when he becomes involved with a working-class trick who moves in with him, but is determined to save face by marrying and having kids one day. The film’s title refers to Marc’s habit of recording little moments of his life with his Super 8 camera. One of the film’s most poignant moments comes when, in the middle of the night, Marc runs his lens over his lover’s body, lingering over his favourite spots, knowing that this bliss is too sweet to last.All this personal drama is set against a backdrop of political and cultural upheaval. A major coup is gained after student protests force the university to give Marc and Julie’s Marxist/feminist/gay rights group a room to host weekly meetings. In this sequence, Avellis perfectly documents the meeting’s inevitable devolution from unified passion to hook-up spot to nastily cliquey sects.When her boyfriend doesn’t answer her letters, Julie gets more deeply involved with a radical feminist commune, eventually moving in with them and begins a romantic relationship with its leader. At first, the feminists are arm in arm with their gayboy comrades, but they eventually decide they don’t want to be tainted by any male presence, and Marc and Julie’s friendship suffers as a result.Of all the many aspects of political and personal student life that Super 8, the vacillations in Marc and Julie’s relationship is the most touching and engaging. In a world where so many media portrayals of friendships between gay men and straight (or bicurious) women are based on caricatures and stereotypes, here is a depiction of a unique relationship that is refreshingly honest and real. Philippon and Pilastre have a wonderful natural chemistry, and there are lots of subtly painful moments where they inertly allow the tides of politics to sweep them apart, as well as happy ones when they’re snuggling on the couch, commiserating over romantic and political disappointments.The only flub in this otherwise lovely little film is Avellis’s decision to randomly switch from colour to black-and-white stock at random moments toward the end of the film. There seems to be no stylistic or thematic reason for it; the first time it happened I thought it was because the production had run out of money. It seems impossible to make a film set in Paris in 1968 without somehow referencing Jean-Luc Godard, but this gimmick just feels like a lesser artist copying a great master’s work; it looks the same, but there’s none of the passion or intellectual ferocity.But just like his characters, we can forgive Avellis for flying letting his lofty ideals bring him too close to the sun now and then. After all, their wings have already taken them to such great heights. »

Chicago Reeling Film Festival, october 2007« This is a beautifully photographed narrative, and, just like the era it depicts, brims with hope at times, and reels from confusion at others. »

DOASKDOTELL MOVIE REVIEW of The Dreamers, october 2007« A “ones complement” to the Bertolucci film is a My Super 8 Season (“Ma Saison Super 8,” 2005, Du Contraire / Antiprod, dir. Alessandro Avellis, France, 71 min, sug NC-17) traces the “left wing” in France starting with the 1968 protests above, all the way into the 1970s, as a docudrama involving several characters. There is Marc (Axel Philippon) jump starting a gay rights movement while his platonic female friend Julie (Celia Pilastre) pushes worker’s rights. Marc angers his father, a cop, involved in a bust with a factory worker Andre, who claims to be straight but becomes attracted to Marc. Though the relationships roughly parallel those of the Bertolucci film, the pace is much faster and, even with the explicit nude scenes, the movie loses the tension that the Bertolucci film developed with this subject matter. In the film’s middle, there are interesting ideological discussions about how gays fit in to the people’s and women’s movements; there are some objections to gays even on the left, and odd discussions about the idea that male homosexuality fan reinforce stereotypes about “virility.” In fact, as the year’s progress, Marc appears more “mature” physically, although there is a problem that the characters tend to look and act too much alike, a problem within far left movements. The title of the film refers to Andre’s habit of shooting Super 8 videos (with 70s technology) of sex scenes, that look even too grainy for “Deep Throat.” »

MELBOURNE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL, My Super 8 Season, march 2008« The 1968 student riots in Paris provide the backdrop for a friendship between two dreamy young activists in this engaging and original French feature. Julie and Marc are enthusiastic and sprightly intelligentsia with the world at their feet. Julie separates from her partner Stéphane and moves into a women’s refuge where she takes up the fight for feminism and lesbian rights. Meanwhile, Marc motivates others to fight for gay rights. While at home he argues with his working class Dad, and he fights for his love with a young factory worker, Andrew, who has a reputation around the beats of Paris and is always finding disaster. On the cusp of the 1970s, the direct action grows, the sexual politics become more difficult and youth fades to adulthood. Alessandro Avellis’ brilliant and sexy debut is inspired by the true story of FHAR - the Homosexual Revolutionary Front and its pioneers Guy Hocquenghem and Francoise d’Eaubonne. »

LONDON INT’L LGBT FILM FESTIVAL, My Super 8 Season, march 2008« This is a refreshing account of a youthful gay activist Marc caught up in the events of May 1968. When he is confronted by the realities of a young worker unable to come out at work, his politics and his life begin to collide. He is swept into political engagement, and the film brilliantly conveys the bold ambitions of left wing activism in the period which led to the creation of the French version of the Gay Liberation Front (FHAR). This is an insightful, invigorating and emotionally authentic recreation of the challenges of feminism and gay politics at the dawn of modern gay life. It is a great achievement which belies a meagre budget and a shooting schedule of days rather than weeks."

OUTFEST LOS ANGELES, My Super 8 Season, july 2008"Forty years after France’s tumultuous May 1968, MY SUPER 8 SEASON (MA SAISON SUPER 8) puts queer characters front and center in that era’s social revolution. Marc balances gay politics and his love affair with a gorgeous factory worker while Julie redefines herself in a lesbian commune. Filled with the type of young, sexy and intellectually-charged characters Godard would love, the film brilliantly balances the personal and the political against a backdrop of social change. "

Alessandro Avellis was born in Bari (Italy) on 30 September 1975. He studied film direction in Rome. Since 2000 he lives in Paris. He directed some short films selected and awarded in several international film festivals, of which "Lovstori", selected in 1996 at the Sacher festival of Nanni Moretti, and "More of Paul", released on DVD by Antiprod. He wrote, directed and produced in 2005 his first feature film, "My Super 8 Season", freely inspired by historical events (DVD Antiprod). Then, he directed two documentaries: "The Revolution of Desire" (2006, DVD Hystérie Prod), about the French feminist and gay liberation movements in the 70s, and "The Vatican Rules" (2007), on the reactionary influence of the Roman Church.In 2008 he directed"Transseizième", a documentary about Pascale Ourbih, a transsexual actress, first-time candidate for the French Green Party in the wealthiest and conservative Parisian district.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

“My Super 8 Season” is my first feature film. It runs in Paris between May 68 and the early 70s. I have always been fascinated by that era that represents to me the birth of an international ideological movement based upon some fundamentals principles as freedom and pacifism. I have also been very influenced by the 60s and 70s cinema, for instance by directors such as Marco Ferreri, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and so on…Since 2000 I live in Paris and I was very soon involved in the story of the FHAR (Front Homosexuel d’Action Révolutionnaire) which was the heart, with the MLF (Mouvement de Libération des Femmes) of the French sexual freedom movement. I realised that no films had been made about this crucial period that saw the birth of our current rights. Although appreciated by several producers, my project did not find any financing. So, I thought that this film that talks about freedom must be created in the freest way… and I decided to self-produce it. The casting was central to this film and it went on during two months. I was lucky to find a young and astonishing team, in particular the main leads. Because of the low-budget conditions, “My Super 8 Season” was filmed in nine days and I took care myself about the 70s costumes and decors, looking for vintage dress and orange accessories in the Parisian flea markets... In spite of that, the frenetic rhythm of shooting and its atmosphere were truly exciting. As a result, the story got more developed and some scenes were added at the last minute, played in improvisation or written in the middle of the night. After “My Super 8 Season”, I decided to give a more historical point of view of my first film, with the documentary “The revolution of desire” (2006) which achieves and concludes my personal research about those thrilling years.